Housing Inventory Rose in July

The number of homes being offered for sale is rising heading into the softer part of the summer, a sign that higher home prices could be encouraging more sellers to test the market, according to a report released Tuesday.

Nationally, the number of homes for sale stood 5.2% below the levels of a year earlier. But inventories rose by 1.4% from June, an indication that the inventory crunch could finally be easing, data from Realtor.com showed. Compared with June, listings rose in 17 of the 30 cities.

The 1.96 million homes listed for sale was the highest since last September, according to the report.